4 – 3 The Ties That Bind by Luke Hung BSG-R
We open to a massive flyby of Cylon Raiders, just in case the viewer forgot that the Colonials are hopelessly outnumbered and then the view jump inside a Resurrection Ship. Dean Stockwell is bouncing out of his pool of goo, with fragmented memories of being slain by the Sixes and some Centurions. The scene ends with Boomer laying a wet one the Cavil model. Look I’m all for these May – December romances, but give me a break. Dean Stockwell was old when he did Quantum Leap two decades ago. I’m not sure Grace Park was even born.
Before my brain can finish frying we leap to the Galactica, where Cally is sleeping. Well, kind of sleeping, the baby is crying and she is having mini-flashback of her bitching at the Chief. To be fair she looks a little cute right now all mussed up (that FF look), but she still is a whiner. She finds a napkin from Joe’s Bar and decides to check for Tyrol there. Of course he is there and with Tory, who somehow has become a Hybrid Whore, as she makes a pass at Tyrol, just in time for Cally to see. She starts to make a scene but collapses vomiting on the floor. That’s two icks, before the first commercial. Good Start!!!
We return from the commercials to find Roslin being treated by Cottle for her cancer. Suddenly Adama begins reading from a mystery book to her. Actually that is pretty romantic, and they are slowly winning me over to these two getting along. Roslin winces in pain in the background. We slide over to Lee making a little speech of his take over of the Caprican seat on the Quorum of Twelve. Now if this series had numerous future seasons this tangent would be interesting for Apollo, but since we all know it has about 17 episodes left, I don’t get why they are doing this.
The press chimes in, “Madame President, do you have any hard feelings?” “Where is the Demetrius? (the ship carrying Kara).” Both Adama and Roslin dodge these questions and then cut the press conference short to avoid further more pointed queries. Roslin in another private moment with Adama notes that she is surprised it took this long for the press to start asking questions about the Demetrius and how she is going to have to be covering for him for a long time. Well, at least he let her know that he let Kara go, which is something I wasn’t sure about at the conclusion of the last episode. Adama states he wanted to give Starbuck a chance and it is clear that this is a significant bone of contention between the two.
We jump to the aforementioned Demetrius and we learn through subtitles that the ship is seeking Earth on the 22nd day of their mission. There are two Vipers sitting on her foredeck. I doubt that would slow down a Baseship, but at least its something. Kara works feverishly over some starmaps and she has a flashback of what looks like Jupiter and a comet. Gaeta visits her, then returns to the rest of the crew with another course correction. The crew seems pretty frustrated by the whole experience and a character I never saw before theorizes that the Galactica is waiting for Starbuck to get all Cylon so they can jump in and pound her. Not surprisingly Anders jumps to Starbucks defense and Helo just puts the squash on the whole argument.
Kara calls for Helo, but before he can reach her Anders slides in to talk to Starbuck. She stands silhouetted with a bright light at her back so that her face is hidden. Anders tries to pull more information out of her but she is abrupt and cryptic. Although this is probably due to the fact that she has no idea what she is doing rather than her intentionally being rude.
Back on the Galactica Tyrol does what many men before him have; he tries to explain to Cally that he and Tory Foster aren't having an affair. Welcome to the club brother, not that I ever had to do something like that. Although given the grief he gets from her who would be surprised if he were actually cheating. Cally decides to pretend nothing has happened, which irritates him.
On the Cylon civil war, we see a Centurion awkwardly cleaning up some bloodstains on the Sixes liberated Basestar. To wit, the returning Cavil notes that none of the humanoid Cylons are helping, emphasizing the continued existence of a class order. Cavil states that he blames himself for this conflict, because he didn’t listen and asks what needs to be done so they all can get back together. The Eights looks surprised, but pleased. The Sixes are expressionless. They ask for two things, for them to stop lobotomizing the Raiders and to unbox the Threes. Cavil is okay with the former but seems reluctant about the latter. At the end of the meeting he is escorted off the ship, but not before the Centurion waits to be asked nicely. Cavil leaves with a slightly menacing comment about what they have started.
Lee, in the Quorum conference room uncomfortably sits in his chair. Zarek watches from the doorway, finally entering, he inquires as to why Lee is there. Learning that Lee wanted to see Roslin, Zarek drops some knowledge on him. Roslin hasn’t forgiven him for his cross examination during the Baltar trial and likely isn’t going to. Lee indicates that she forgave Zarek, but he comments that he is just her pawn. Lee then questions, why Zarek nominated him. Lee quickly dismisses any notion that he would side with Zarek over Roslin. Zarek doesn’t seem to care. He didn’t want an uprising he just wants someone who can ask tough questions, like Apollo did during the trial. He comments the Roslin is becoming more and more like a dictator, passing edicts without review or debate, but he stops short of calling her a tyrant. Yeah that’s a very fine line Zarek decided not to cross, a very fine line. Hey does anyone else remember the episode Black Market is the second season… Yeah I know it sucked, but didn’t Zarek start a relationship with the black market at the end of that episode. Yup, a thread that just went no where, they don’t know what to do with this character.
In sickbay, Cally asks for a sedative so she can sleep. Cottle rejects that idea and instead asks how things are on the home front. She confesses that she thinks the Chief is cheating on her, and she even comments that she wishes that he would do something to show her that he still cared, including hitting her again. For those of you who don’t remember about 30 episodes ago Tyrol beat the piss out of her on the hanger deck while he was having a delusion about being a Cylon. Irony is so ironic isn’t it?
Back to the Demetrius we see red paint drip on Starbuck. It looks a lot like blood which I presume was the point of the start of the scene. She is painting our solar system on the side of her cabin. Anders walks into her cabin and tries to get her to open up more to the crew, but she isn’t having any of that. He tries to talk about reality and unity, indicating the tattoos they got for each other. I was wondering where that tattoo came from, it is ugly. Frankly I think Anders is still trying to convince himself that he is human on some level. Starbuck dismisses and concept that she is united with Anders. She counters that she married him because he was safe and he was dumb enough to trust her. The do the BS fighting thing and then we are reduced to watching them do the naughty - naughty.
We switch to a Quorum meeting where someone questions a news report, which states the Demetrius is searching for new food sources, as a clear attempt at disinformation. Roslin just smiles as Zarek pounds his gavel. Another delegate babbles something about the route to Earth, a question which Roslin dodges. Lee tries to go to Roslin’s aid but she isn’t having any of that and smacks him down too. Lee now irritated dredges up some Executive Order 112, which would effectively allow Roslin to name a judge in a special tribunal and then name the appellate judge as well. This would eliminate a fair trial for anyone that special tribunal was investigating. Roslin uncomfortably tries to dodge this one as well and tries to push it off for their next meeting, but the Quorum is reduced to bickering over this issue. Roslin and Lee eye each other warily, but Lee has a small don’t screw with me smirk.
Cavil returns to the Rebel basestar where in informs them that they won and the Threes are getting unboxed. One of the Eights seems irritated anyway, but a Six decides to accept their victory graciously. Cavil says they are several jumps away from a resurrection hub where they can witness the Three’s unboxing personally. Six wisely states she rather remain on her ship. Cavil agrees. Or perhaps it was not so wisely. When they arrive at the unboxing sight, the Eights and the Sixes note that there is a large fleet maneuvering into aggressive positions around them. They also note that there are no Resurrection ships in the vicinity so anyone who is lost will be lost for good. They decide to retreat, but it is too late the attack has begun.
On Cavil’s baseship and Eight (I think it’s the original Boomer) wonders about if it is wrong to permanently kill their brothers and sisters. To wit Cavil responses “God will watch over their immortal souls.” Boomer counters, “Who will watch over our souls?”
“We’re machines dear, remember. We don’t have souls.” A phrase that is brutal, calculating, and misogynistic all in eight words, nicely done.
In la casa Tyrol, Cally sits alone with the baby again. She puts the baby down and goes to the door, that’s when she sees a note. You don’t have to be a psychic to know that bad things are afoot. The note is ambiguous in regard to what is going on, but what is clear is the meeting is on the Enterprise. Ok, not the Enterprise but at weapons locker 1701-D…. that is not an accident. Both Eicks and Moore worked on Star Trek.
She sneaks through some conduits until she is just outside the weapons locker where she finds the penultimate four. Tigh reveals that they are all Cylon directly in words, which if I were a Cylon on a ship full of humans I would never say aloud, just so I could deny it if I ever was caught. Cally over hears and drops a panel which makes everyone suspicious but not overly so. The meeting breaks up and only Tory notices the panel that Cally crawled through. Cally beats Tyrol back to their happy home where he returns to his claims of monogamy. Cally has some brief flashbacks of the happy moments as she listens to Tyrol.
Then Cally, freaking out, pulls out a huge wrench and she beats the piss out of Tyrol. Well all I can say is what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. She rifles through his pockets, pulls out a key, and then grabs the baby and leaves. She walks like a zombie to the hanger deck and steps into a launch tube. Not for nothing there has got to be a better way to commit suicide than relatively slow suffocation in a zero degree vacuum. Plus since she nearly died this way last season would she really want to go out this way again?
Cally sets the tube to open and Tory shows up. She calmly asks her to think about what is doing. Actually she looks a little scary to me. Cally does a whole bunch of yelling and crying as Tory moves slowly closer. Cally seals the tube behind Tory and threatens to blow them all out the launch tube. “Do it” I yell, but they can’t hear me. Yeah I know a baby is involved… but its part Cally that means it’s all annoying. Tory tells her that they didn’t know they were Cylons until recently. She gets a little closer and somehow her talking makes Cally lose her will to commit suicide. Finally within arms reach Tory simultaneous takes the baby and slaps Cally halfway down the tube. Maybe she could get the slap off, but ask any mother, there is no way on Earth someone they don’t like can put their hands on that mother’s baby. By time Cally comes to both Tory and her baby are on the other side of the pressure doors.
Don’t ask me how but Tory knows how to open, close, and set the tubes to launch, but she does just that launching Cally into space. In the next scene we see Adama silently facing Tyrol, presumably telling him about Cally’s demise. How he knows I have no idea either.
Overall the episode was a B +
Acting: B+, I liked it a lot. Nicki Cline was good in her final appearance, although I hated all the crying. It was appropriate and well done, I just don’t like crying. What was notable the other plots everyone was doing some really important and good character work, but none of them were over the top. That’s called acting; going over the top that’s called bad acting.
Plot: B+, Best episode this season, the characters moved along nicely. I’m going to give them a pass of Tory’s sudden skill in fighter launch operations because Cally got whacked because of it. I can’t say I’m sorry to see her go, but it was more tragic and painful than I thought it was going to be. If you are doing death requests can you kill off Tory too? I am so sick of her. Also I am getting tired with Starbuck’s Borderline Personality Disorder (look it up). As far as the Cylons are concerned that had to be the shortest civil war in history. They could have moved that further in season three and they wouldn’t have to squeeze it all in now.
Action/Episode Energy: B, Ehh, the tension or fear factor wasn’t really there. It was more like a horror movie when you know a character was going to get it, you just don’t know how and when. You knew someone was going to find out about the penultimate four and once you knew Cally was the one, she was a dead woman walking.
